Farwell Thailand, hello Laos.....by Nic (sorry its such a long one but so much to tell)

Well after leaving our delightful guest house in Bangkok, we got taxi to the station and bought tickets for the sleeper train to Nong Khai on the border of Thialand and Laos. We boarded the train at 8pm and it was much better than expected, it was clean and orderly and the beds were very sleepable surprisingly. We chilled on the bed and played cards and fell asleep at 10ish. The journey was quite noisy and woke at 6am, we were only 3 hours from out destination.

We crossed the border at Friendship bridge by being signed out of Thailand and then queued to buy our visa for Laos. We then got a taxi to Vientiene town centre and found a decent hotel for one night. Not much to do here but we wandered round and ate well. We left the next day for Vang Vieng, a tuk tuk stly bus picked us up and we rode round for an hour picking others up but ended up back at thesame place we set off from, a little annoying but this is Laos and you just cant get angry or be impatient, just gotta roll with it. We got to the bus station and boarded a slightly better bus with aircon, it took approx 4 hours to reach VangVien by travelling the only main roda there is in Laos passing through flooded villages, it rains alot here.

Vang Viene is in such a beuatiful area, in the valley of some mountains topped with fluffy white clouds, though the town tries hard to please the Westerners (Philang as they call us) with many bars playing Friends and South Park all day long, we managed to mainly avoid these and tried to sample the more traditional restuarant/bar huts. Half cut, we booked up for what we thought was a trek but when we rocked up up to thepick up point the next day we realised we had signed up to a day of Kayaking and small trek to the caves. I was quite nervous after seeing the flooded river and sharp realised we were hardly drerssed for getting wet lol! Ended up being the best thing we ever did as it was so much fun, we only capsized once but lucky we did as we then plucked up the courage to jump from a big trapeze rope swing into the river at one of the bars on the tubing strip, was great fun!

Travelling to Luang Prabang from VV took 8 hours an hour longer than it should have as there was a very minor accident blocking the whole road, a car had scraped a lorry as it tried to overtake and no one was budging until the official person came to see it for insurance purposes, yet again another thing that could only happen in Laos! The views were amazing but certainly no good for people who get travel sick as we clung to the mountain side along the windiest roads I have ever seen, such an experience!

We found a smart place to stay in LP only 5 quid a night which is typical price for us here, though there are many expensive places here as it is a beautiful town which caters for everybody not just backpackers, we realised that this place was worth staying for a long time so booked our guest house for 6 nights. The books were right when they say that this town is the most romantic place in the orient. Beware of the buzzy insects though they really do sting if trapped on your arm, I found out sadly and was in agony for 10 hours!!

Trek and Homestay and Kayaking, we booked up the right thing this time and so glad we did. We set off in a van wioth two spanish girls and two guides to the base of a mountain somewhere very remote about an hour from the town, we walked uphill for 3 hours in the baking humidity, litterally after 30 mins I felt like giving up but the higherwe got the better the breeze and the views became. We arrived at a small traditional village and ate rice and bread for lunch. We toured the village meeting the locals, the farm animals and also a snake, yes a snake, a bright green one that a villager had killed but was still twitching, gross! A hundred yards from the first village was a second village which looked the same but the locals spoke a completley different language very odd. We then wlaked another 3 hours to reach another village where the spanish girls were picked up, which left Graham and I and a guide called Phet (AKA Spicy). He took us to the home that we would spend the night. The children were shy at first but once we pulled out the sticker book and crayons they loved us. We washed with a bucket and cold water and had dinner with the family including Gran who kept burping all night. We went to bed at 8.30pm which was a thin mattress on the floor upstairs which was covered by a mosquito net, to be honest we had the best nights sleep here as we did not get up until 8am the following day. We woke to the smell of the burning wood in the kitchen and the cockeral crowing outside, fantastic. We played rock paper scissors and clapping games with the children for a couple of hours and sang songs with them teahcing them some English words, the memorioes of thier smiling happy little faces will remain in my head forever, truely amazing experience. We left the home in a van which drove us to the river where we kayaked the river back to LP, visting the cave and whisky village along the way.

We got on so well with our guide that he asked if he could join usthenext day on his day off to visit the waterfall and go swimming, he would guide us to the spring where the waterfall begins its lfe in return, he also had a friend with a tuk tuk who charged us cheap rates to get there and back. The trek to the top of the waterfall was a mission uphill and knee deep in mood, but was facsinating to see where the water started from, it was clean fresh cold water. Back down at the waterfall we washed and swam and jumped from the rope swing, the current was very powerful but was great fun.

Back at the town we went for beers at the lively bar and watchedthe young budding be-bop dancers do thier stuff, they were wicked and could show the british kids a thing or two, so talented with probably no real instruction. We were kicked out of the bar at 11.15pm as it was closing time, the whole town was asleep, so certainly not a party town.

Its our last day here and most certainly the hottest, as soon as you step out the sweat just pours, I walked up to the temple while graham uploads the pics which I hope you will enjoy as it took 3 hours, they do not do this place justice, sad to leave tomorrow morning!

Lots of love

Nic & Graham (bitten to shreds by mossies)